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App to manage Android app permissions

Getting on top of privacy

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The app has been created in response to the poor permission control offered natively by Android over apps. As Facebook users have noted over the last few weeks, for example, their Android app is now demanding access to SMS / MMS, calendar events, and WiFi control.

SnoopWall is one of the growing class of permission management apps, a segment that's attracted growing interest ever since Google's bungled on-then-off release of App Ops in December.

That misstep prompted this furious response from the Electronic Frontiers Foundation, which pointed out that many apps simply don't need the permissions they request (citing the case of the flashlight which was slapped down by the FTC in December).

Described by the company as “counterveillance anti-spyware software for consumers”, SnoopWall is designed to block eavesdropping, protect the camera, microphone, GPS, Bluetooth, NFC, WiFi and “other high-risk data ports”.

Too much information:

Facebook's permission requests,

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Users can also manage which ports are available to individual apps. “This privacy and security feature lets users disable the ability of individual apps to access sensitive, personally identifiable information such as geographic location and address book data,” the company says.